The present invention relates to a headlight mounting and adjustment mechanism and, more particularly, to a device for adjusting the direction in which at least one headlight is aimed.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, it is important for automobile headlights to be aimed correctly. If they are aimed too high or to the left, the headlights might blind an oncoming driver and, this light blinding could, cause a serious automobile accident. However, an accident could occur even if the headlights are aimed too low or to the right, because, although the headlights may not blind an oncoming driver, the driver of the automobile will not be able to see objects at a distance ahead of him. Thus, incorrect aiming of the headlights reduces the driver's ability to see the road properly at night.
Accordingly, automobile headlights are required to have the capability of vertical and horizontal aiming adjustment not only for the automobile manufacturer's expediency, but also for the purpose of the occasional adjustment to be performed by the automobile user or a mechanic of an automobile repair station. In general, this headlight adjustment is effected to the headlight assemblies relative to a headlight support which may be a part of the automobile front body structure or a headlight housing which is fixedly attached to the front body structure.
In most automobiles, a headlight assembly comprises reflector having one or more lamps and a lens positioned frontwardly of the lamps, and the reflector is rigidly mounted on the headlight support, for example, the automobile front body structure, through a plurality of spaced bolt members thereby forming a device for the adjustment of the headlight direction and concurrently used to secure the reflector to the front body structure.
According to the prior art, the headlight adjustment is carried out by adjusting the extension of the bolt members, and the substantially simultaneous adjustment of some of the bolt members is required even when the headlight is desired to be adjusted correctly in only one direction. In this way, the prior art headlight adjustment mechanism requires a relatively complicated and time-consuming procedure for adjustment and, yet, this complicated and time-consuming procedure is often amplified in view of the fact that the adjustment of some of the bolt members causes a movement of the reflector in a direction diagonally of the vertical and horizontal directions.